CIE/Irish Rail - accountable to nobody!

corktina

monument wrote: »

One train in each station is not strictly true, at least on one single track line I use regularly two trains meet at stations -- ie the loop is at the station. Is it not the case cargo trains shouldn't need to take up platform room, as sidings or loops away from station platforms will do for them?



thats not what I said. Trains at the stations arent a problem, its the section BETWEEN the stations that is. depending on the length of the sections there is a limit to how many trains can be run on a single line, ie if it takes a train 30 mins to get from station a to b and in clear then the max service is one train an hour in each direction, and then you have to allow for delays which can throw the entire line into chaos. Remember that "one per hour" is the maximum, if there is nt a train there waiting to cross then the opposing train will have to wait for it OR the late train will have to be held at the preceding station.

Cookie_Monster

monument wrote: »

Could you explain what impact that has got to do with what is being talked about? And more so, how is that answering the question you quoted?

Fine, it translates to roughly 80%+ of trucks running back from deliveries being full or part loaded rather than empty, better?

monument

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Fine, it translates to roughly 80%+ of trucks running back from deliveries being full or part loaded rather than empty, better?

Really sorry if I'm coming across as narky etc here, but that's a useless snippet of info unless you can say what the 80% is make up of, and where are the trucks going or coming from, and how far is there journey etc...

More importantly, my question was about adverages and about getting a genral picture, not just one example which could give a distorted picture.

corktina wrote: »

thats not what I said

Sorry, I miss read 'section' as 'station'.

dowlingm

We're getting into the realm of industrial policy here - that freight flows be analysed and the economic conditions created to encourage rail as their transport mode. A lot of the freight data should be accessible from CSO, you would think? Now, you would think that's what the Dept of Transport and the Department of Industry/Enterprise/whateveryou'rehavingyourself would be doing anyway...

A serious move to freight would have to consider a 32-county context, so both sides of the border could be served by Larne/Balbriggan/Rosslare/Belview with trains shuttling from one to the other in the context of a redeveloped Dublin Port and an intermodal yard near Dublin Airport. In that sense an open-access operator would probably work better than solely IE or Translink but also obstruction from both and the necessity for serious regulatory oversight (something the banking sector shows is not done very well these days).

The problem in one sense is that the Republic has created a road network whose financing essentially depends on projected road traffic - projections which will take a major hit from the current economic situation - and there will be a lot of planted op-eds in the press saying we're courting disaster by encouraging railheads rather than sending artics up and down our M-ways.

The capacity issue is not likely to be single track - Canada has a huge freight industry with trains kilometres long and a lot of it goes single track - it is more likely to be Dublin area capacity. Since the KRP and interconnector seems doomed to be single deck from what I understand, unless IE finds some way to make a quantum leap in signalling and spacing extra freight trains are going to be unwelcome by passengers who couldn't get on the full DART/suburban that just left.

Adding a rail component to DOOR and the Dublin Bay bridge might help - if the Department of Transport had any interest in leveraging the expropriation of land at vast cost for multiple purposes - which history says it doesn't.

corktina

the issue with single track is the desire of the travelling public to have an improved regular interval service. Its very difficult to allow for freight there (except maybe at night) even if it isnt kilometres long....

Judgement Day

A comment on IRN today re.withdrawal of Fastrack

irishtrains2730
it's silly really especially in the current climate of job losses.surely they could make it work in their favour.one day they'll loose money then where will they be?

God help us with idiots like this is any wonder CIE/IE get such an easy ride from 'enthusiasts'?

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

A comment on IRN today re.withdrawal of Fastrack

irishtrains2730
it's silly really especially in the current climate of job losses.surely they could make it work in their favour.one day they'll loose money then where will they be?

God help us with idiots like this is any wonder CIE/IE get such an easy ride from 'enthusiasts'?

You really should stop reading that site. Its soul destroying if you care about things, despite the fact that there are some good sensible people over there from time to time.

Judgement Day

I know I should but I am just back from the pub after watching another glorious chapter in Munster's rugby history and that combined with too much Guinness always brings on the urge to surf aimlessly! Did I mention that Munster won - again - who cares about Fastrack, IRN, Rail Users Ireland or Mark G...... the Barry Kenny wannabe!!

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

I know I should but I am just back from the pub after watching another glorious chapter in Munster's rugby history and that combined with too much Guinness always brings on the urge to surf aimlessly! Did I mention that Munster won - again - who cares about Fastrack, IRN, Rail Users Ireland or Mark G...... the Barry Kenny wannabe!!

Legend!

Judgement Day

Where Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann go (with up to 600 job losses) Iarnrod Eireann will surely follow but is there anything left to cut?

They are tied into the WRC, Midleton and Navan (Pace) re-openings so apart from further decimation of station staff - outside Dublin - what is left? The sell-off of railway property (Inchicore Works etc) is no longer worthwhile with the current recession so the spotlight will probably fall - once again - on the Waterford/Rosslare and Limerick/Ballybrophy lines.

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

so the spotlight will probably fall - once again - on the Waterford/Rosslare and Limerick/Ballybrophy lines.

Its only a matter of time.

dowlingm

Judgement Day wrote: »

the spotlight will probably fall - once again - on the Waterford/Rosslare and Limerick/Ballybrophy lines.

Why wouldn't it, since IE don't feel it's important to get a train from east of Limerick Junction to arrive in Limerick before 0900 and whose train from Nenagh can be overtaken by a well fed donkey pulling a trap?

Cookie_Monster

dowlingm wrote: »

whose train from Nenagh can be overtaken by a well fed donkey pulling a trap?

A bit slow is it:D

Ardent

Judgement Day wrote: »

Well I've done my bit. This evening I've emailed Noel Dempsey via his non-user friendly website, Ciaran Cuffe (Green Party Transport spokesman), Fergus O'Dowd (FG Transport Spokesman) and Tommy Broughan (Labour Party Transport Spokesman) to complain about the confirmed withdrawal of CIE/IE's Fastrack service from 31/3/09. Will it make any difference - I doubt it!

In a previous life I ran passenger trains hired from CIE and was about to get back into the charter business when the idea had to be deferred due to the introduction of the wretched Commuter railcars in the South East. My point being that I have seriously examined the possibility of operating a Fastrack type operation when IE finally withdraw the service - I have been looking at this option for about two years since it became obvious that the end was nigh but alas it is not a viable possibility. CIE/IE currently have the infrastructure in place i.e an agent (depotman) at locations nationwide and once they are no longer handling parcels the operation becomes a logistical nightmare. I can't see anyone else taking it on and so the continued downgrading of the railway's usefulness to the people of Ireland looks set to continue. The IE press release carried on RTE news today says it all - a masterpiece of ineptitude full of absolute tosh! :mad:



From rte.ie: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0114/rail.html


Iarnród Éireann to end parcel service
Wednesday, 14 January 2009 16:14
Iarnród Éireann has confirmed that it is to cease operation of its FasTrack service from the 31 March.

FasTrack provides a same-day nationwide express service for parcels to over 60 stations on the rail network, including Northern Ireland.

An Iarnród Éireann spokeswoman said the new diesel multiple-unit trains cannot accommodate parcels.

She said the old locomotive trains had an empty carriage, that accommodated parcels whereas all the new trains only have passenger carriages.

The spokeswoman also said the current economic climate was a reason for withdrawing the service.

The 20 people who are employed in the FasTrack service will either be deployed within Iarnród Éireann or they can avail of a voluntary severance package.

I only discovered today that IE's Fastrack service has been withdrawn! I have used this service many times in the past and I think it's an absolute disgrace that is no longer available.

Apparently the reason for the withdrawal is that the new trains only have passenger carriages!! I don't know much about our public rail transport system but surely this begs the following questions:

- Where was the forward thinking when the decision was made to purchase them?
- Why are we dismantling the older trains when they could operate on existing routes along with the newer trains, even if only once a day?

As with everything else in this country, gombeens are running the show here.